Evaluation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership

There was much opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in Japan, but I will still attempt to evaluate the contents of the agreement. The 31 rules of the agreement relax foreign investment restrictions on transmissions, financing, retail and public enterprises, etc. More than a few items benefit and are of importance to the Japanese economy. Japan relies on trade for survival and strategically should oppose increases in foreign market transparency. It is safe to say that the government negotiated well. Japan decided to lift tariffs...

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Two 28-year old female directors

　“Suzaku” directed by Naomi Kawase and “Silent Voice(Qu'un seul tienne et les autres suivront)” directed by Léa Fehner. “Suzaku” won La Caméra d'or award in 1997 Cannes Film Festival. She was the youngest newcomer to win the award. “Silent Voice” was a 2009 film, and it was released in Japan at the end of 2012. 　Both of the films were the directors’ real debut work at age 28. I saw both of the films many times, but I compared the two again. While being tranquil, veteran, and finished products, I get burned by the passion of these works to...

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I am a groupie of Dufy.

　I first encountered Raoul Dufy in Kobe in 1983, if I remember correctly. I went to see the exhibit that came to Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art. 　The space configuration with target lines, color, and the light were misaligned with blue and red scattered around. It was transparent and had a unique rhythm. It was moving, even though it was a painting. It was bursting. It had snapping sounds. When I saw the happy painting style with the...

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Christopher Steiner “Automate This: How Algorithms Came to Rule Our World”

　“Automate This: How Algorithms Came to Rule Our World” by Christopher Steiner. 　The author, who is an engineer and a journalist carefully depicts the coming of age in which algorithms rule finance, music, and medicine as well as IT. 　“Hackers” who divert the concept to algorithms will build a new empire. They are not business school people. He depicts the power shift. The area such as art and design that creative are involved is not secure, either. Algorithm is starting to penetrate. 　First, music. The memory of the case of musical compositions...

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Kensaku Fukui “Who Dominates ‘Intelligence’?”

　”Who Dominates ‘Intelligence’?” by Kensaku Fukui. 　The meaning of digital archive as an infrastructure, fierce strategy of the West, and the path that Japan should take. Here are some points from the book that I picked up. (à are my thoughts.) 　Europeana Collections is EU’s electronic museum that released 30,000,000 works digitally. The French government allocated ¥100 billion budget for it. The number of items in the National Diet Library in Japan is 480,000 pieces. 　à There is a two-digit difference. 　The French national video archive...

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